Show Your Work!

Austin Kleon

📚 GENRE: Miscellaneous

📃 PAGES: 224

✅ COMPLETED: November 10, 2022

🧐 RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Short Summary

You’re creating great work, but you’re not sure how to get it out there for others to see. In Show Your Work!, Austin Kleon explains why sharing your work with the world is important and outlines 10 ways to do it effectively and efficiently. From broader life lessons about work to the etiquette of sharing, Kleon gives readers a manual for succeeding in the digital age.

Key Takeaways

1️⃣ Show Your Work! — The core message of this book, as the title suggests, is to show your work. Whatever you’re doing, interested in, or working on, put it out into the world. Start a website and claim a piece of turf on the internet. Upload your work on the website and post on your social media accounts. You never know who might find it interesting. 

2️⃣ Share Your Process — Most people only share their work when the final product has been completed. In today’s world, people are really interested in the process of creating something; they want to see the ideas, inspiration, and approach that went into your work. What or who motivates you? Why did you choose this approach? Share information about your process daily — people enjoy it and learn from it. The ‘Daily Dispatch’ is a good idea provided in this book. 

3️⃣ Fear or No Fear… Share — The fear of being judged is one of the most difficult barriers to overcome when sharing your work. Many people are afraid of what people are going to think of their work. The key is to not care what EVERYBODY thinks and just care about what the RIGHT people think. 

Favorite Quote

“Whether you share it or not, documenting and recording your process as you go along has its own rewards: You’ll start to see the work you’re doing more clearly and feel like you’re making progress. And when you’re ready to share, you’ll have a surplus of material to choose from.”

Book Notes 📑

Preface: A New Way of Operating

  • A Different Approach to ‘Networking’ — By sharing and putting your work out into the world, you can build a following and bring the network to you, rather than going out and trying to ‘network’ with others. It all comes down to getting really good at something and sharing your work with the world, whether it’s via a blog, website, school project, etc. This book outlines some for the key steps to sharing your work.
    • Quote (P. 2): “Almost all of the people I look up to and try to steal from today, regardless of their profession, have built sharing into their routine. These people aren’t schmoozing at cocktail parties; they’re too busy for that. They’re cranking away in their studios, their laboratories, or their cubicles, but instead of maintaining absolute secrecy and hoarding their work, they’re open about what they’re working on, and they’re consistently posting bits and pieces of their work, their ideas, and what they’re learning online. Instead of wasting their time ‘networking,’ they’re taking advantage of the network.”
      • Takeaway — Get really good at something and post about it! Build a website and share what you’re learning and doing. People who are interested in what you’re doing will find you. 

Ch. 1: You Don't Have to Be a Genius

  • Creativity is Collaborative — In today’s world, it’s easier than ever to share ideas and collaborate with others. You don’t have to be a ‘genius’ who keeps everything to himself, like Mozart and Einstein did. Today, creativity is more of a collaborative effort where everybody is taking influence from other people’s work. You don’t have to be a genius to do good work and share it with the world. 
  • It Doesn’t Have To Be Perfect — You don’t have to be great at something to share what you’re working on. It doesn’t have to be perfect. ‘Amateurs’ love what they do and are passionate about it. They share what they’re doing, even if it’s not perfect. A lot of people end up not sharing anything at all because they worry about the quality of their work being judged.
    • Ex. YouTube Videos — You don’t have to have the perfect studio setup, perfect video introduction, and perfect sound quality to post book review videos. Find some time to record a video and put it out there. 
    • Quote (P. 19): “The best way to get started on the path to sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn, and make a commitment to learning it in front of others.”
  • Post What You Love — If you’re passionate about something, post about it online. Create a vehicle to share your thoughts (like a website) and begin posting. Other people who have similar interests will find you. But nothing can happen if you don’t get your work out there.
    • Quote (P. 23): “It sounds a little extreme, but in this day and age, if your work isn’t online, it doesn’t exist. We all have the opportunity to use our voices, to have our say, but so many of us are wasting it. If you want people to know about what you do and the things you care about, you have to share.”
  • Life is Fragile — The truth is, you never know when your last day or moment is going to come. Most of us forget that life can be gone in an instant. When you understand that life can be over at any moment, and you keep that thought at the top of your mind, you live with the right perspective. You understand that it doesn’t matter what anybody thinks of you, and you realize that you should express how you feel to those most important to you. Little things that are insignificant in the grand scheme of life, like failure, don’t bother you and you enjoy the people you’re around more.
    • Quote (P. 24): “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked.” — Steve Jobs
      • Takeaway — When you live with the thought and understanding that life can be over at any moment, everything gets put into the right perspective. The things that are actually important come to the surface and everything that seems big, but really isn’t, melts away. Living with this understanding pushes you through fear. It pushes you through failure. And it drives you to tell the people you love how you feel about them, because you understand that it could all be over at any time. 
    • Quote (P. 26): “I realized I was going to die. And when that gets into your mind… it utterly changed me… I thought, ‘I’m not going to sit here and wait for things to happen, I’m going to make them happen, and if people think I’m an idiot I don’t care.’” — Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips
    • Quote (P. 26): “For three or four days after that (a near-death experience), it was the most beautiful world. To have gotten back in it (life), you know? And I thought, ‘if you could walk around like that all the time, to really have that awareness that it’s actually going to end. That’s the trick.’” — Writer George Saunders 

Ch. 2: Think Process, Not Product

  • Show Your Process — People like to see how the sausage gets made. Before the Internet became as prominent as it is today, people never shared the process behind a product. An artist would promote pieces of art at an art gallery and that was it. Today, people love to see what goes into making things. On your website and social media channels, post pictures, blogs, and other things showing off the process behind what you do. People are interested in that, and it’s now easier than ever to do it.
    • Quote (P. 41): “Become a documentarian of what you do. Start a work journal: Write your thoughts down in a notebook, or speak them into an audio recorder. Keep a scrapbook. Take a lot of photographs of your work at different stages in your process. Shoot video of you working. This isn’t about making art, it’s about simply keeping track of what’s going on around you.”
    • Quote (P. 43): “Whether you share it or not, documenting and recording your process as you go along has its own rewards: You’ll start to see the work you’re doing more clearly and feel like you’re making progress. And when you’re ready to share, you’ll have a surplus of material to choose from.”

Ch. 3: Share Something Small Every Day

  • Quote (P. 47): “Overnight success is a myth. Dig into almost every ‘overnight success story’ and you’ll find about a decade’s worth of hard work and perseverance.”
    • Takeaway — Nothing big ever happens overnight; it takes daily discipline and hard work over a long period of time. Huge progress can be made over time by developing a strong set of small daily habits and having the discipline to execute them every day. Every successful person, regardless of their field, has this in common.
  • The Daily Dispatch — One of the best ways to build a following is to post something every day. Post something about your process and progress on your website or social media channels daily. Show people where you’re at with your progress.
    • Quote (P. 51): “The form of what you share doesn’t matter. Your Daily Dispatch can be anything you want — a blog post, an email, a tweet, a YouTube video, or some other little bit of media. There’s no one-size-fits-all plan for everybody.”
      • Takeaway — People love to see what goes into creating things and what makes people successful. Every day, post daily recaps of your progress. Pull back the curtain and allow people inside your process. Allow people to see what has you motivated and inspired. I love to do this as well; I love to pick up on things from other people who are having success and doing cool things. 
    • Quote (P. 52): “Don’t show your lunch or your latte; show your work.”
  • Time Management — Time management is one of the essential ingredients to success. You have to find ways to make the most of your time every day. A key aspect of time management is knowing which tasks or projects fit best into certain slots in your schedule. Easier tasks or projects, for example, are perfect for the 15-20 minutes you have between meetings throughout the day.
    • Quote (P. 54): “Don’t say you don’t have enough time. We’re all busy, but we all get 24 hours a day. People often ask me, ‘How do you find the time for all of this?’ And I answer, ‘I look for it.’ You find time the same place you find spare change: in the nooks and crannies. You find it in the cracks between the big stuff — your commute, your lunch break, the few hours after your kids go to bed. You might have to miss an episode of your favorite TV show, you might have to miss an hour of sleep, but you can find the time if you look for it. I like to work while the world is sleeping, and share while the world is at work.”
      • Takeaway — Look for ways to maximize your time and make the most of every minute and every day. In many ways, time management is like a never-ending puzzle — you have to be conscious of where you’re fitting certain projects and tasks into your schedule depending on what you have going on that day. Wasted time is awful; try to make every minute count. Try to be as productive as possible. Operate with purpose. 
  • Quote (P. 61): “If you work on something a little bit every day, you end up with something that is massive.” — American Poet Kenneth Goldsmith
    • Takeaway — Small daily habits turn into huge progress and growth over time. Develop a set of good, productive daily habits and commit to them. Have the discipline to execute them each day. This approach goes for projects, too; chip away at a big project by completing small pieces of it every day. This goes back to the brick-wall concept that Will Smith writes about in his book, Will. Think about the brick, not the wall. 
  • Build a Website — The absolute best way to share your work and create a presence online is by building your own website. Having your own website gives you a place to store and promote your work, thoughts, and anything else you can imagine. You have total control over your website and the content that goes on it.
    • Quote (P. 65): “Carving out a space for yourself online, somewhere where you can express yourself and share your work, is still one of the best possible investments you can make with your time.”
    • Quote (P. 66): “If you’re really interested in sharing your work and expressing yourself, nothing beats owning your own space online, a place that you control, a place that nobody can take away from you, a world headquarters where people can always find you.”

Ch. 4: Open Your Cabinet of Curiosities

  • Interesting Fact — In 16th and 17th-Century Europe, wealthy people had Wunderkammerns in their houses. These “wonder chambers” or “cabinets of curiosity” were where they stored rare objects that served as external displays of knowledge. Inside of a cabinet of curiosity you might find books, skeletons, jewels, shells, art, plants, minerals, stones, or any other exotic artifact.
    • Quote (P. 75): “They (Wunderkammerns) were the precursors to what we think of today as the modern museum — a place dedicated to the study of history, nature, and the arts.”
  • Share What You Like — Never be afraid to share what you enjoy, no matter what it is. Don’t concern yourself with what other people might think of your content. Share what interests you, what inspires you, what has you motivated, your status on certain projects you’re working on, etc.
    • Quote (P. 76): “Where do you get your inspiration? What sorts of things do you fill your head with? What do you read? Do you subscribe to anything? What sites do you visit on the Internet? What music do you listen to? What movies do you see? Do you look at art? What do you collect? What’s inside your scrapbook? What do you pin to the corkboard above your desk? What do you stick on your refrigerator? Who’s done work that you admire? Who do you steal ideas from? Do you have any heroes? Who do you follow online? Who are the practitioners you look up to in your field?”
      • Takeaway — These are all great questions to ask yourself as you’re sharing content. People are interested in what makes other people tick. People enjoy “stealing” influences from other people who are having success. I enjoy learning the answers to these question from other people who are thriving. It’s always good to pick up on things from successful people — consider sharing what drives you. 

Ch. 5: Tell Good Stories

  • We Love Stories — We are emotional beings who love stories. We connect really well with stories, and storytelling is critical when marketing or promoting your work. When you tell the story behind your work, you’re able to better connect with your audience. You allow them to feel something.
    • Stories in Action — In their book Significant Objects, Josh Glenn and Rob Walker went to thrift shops and yard sales to buy $128-worth of random small objects. They then hired a team of writers to construct stories about each object and placed each one for sale on eBay using the invented stories as each object’s description. When all sales had been made, the sold random items amounted to $3,612. 
    • Quote (P. 93): “The stories you tell about the work you do have a huge effect on how people feel and what they understand about your work, and how people feel and what they understand about your work affects how they value it.”
      • Takeaway — The story behind your work, product, or company absolutely matters. We connect really well through stories; they allow us to feel emotion. Take time to develop the story behind your work and make sure you put the story front and center. The concept of storytelling is also stressed in Donald Miller’s book Building a Story Brand. Stories have become a key aspect of marketing. 
  • Remember the Audience — Regardless of the story, message, or marketing piece you’re developing, always keep the audience in mind. The audience, and the goal of the piece, should always be front and center in your mind. Put yourself in the reader’s shoes — give them what they want. There should always be a goal behind every marketing piece. Write to the goal.
    • Quote (P. 101): “Whether you’re telling a finished or unfinished story, always keep your audience in mind. Speak to them directly in plain language. Value their time. Be brief.”

Ch. 6: Teach What You Know

  • Give Back — Share what you’ve learned. When you share the knowledge, tips, books, videos, mindset, podcasts, and advice that have helped you, you’re able to give back while connecting and learning from other like-minded people. 

Ch. 7: Don't Turn Into Human Spam

  • Read! — One of the best ways to spark new ideas and motivate yourself is to read. When you read, you gain knowledge and you begin to develop your mindset. Books are one of the best ways to learn the habits, discipline, and approach that have allowed successful people to perform at a high level. 

Ch. 8: Learn to Take a Punch

  • Embrace Criticism — Feedback and criticism (from the right people) are tools that make you better. You should never back away from feedback; you should welcome it. Feedback from people who know what they’re doing allows you to make improvements and get better. Don’t be afraid to put your work out there, but be selective with who you listen to when it comes to feedback. Take it one step further and seek feedback from people you admire and respect — that’s one of best ways to accelerate your personal growth rate. 
  • Fear of Judgement — Many people don’t share their work because they’re worried about what other people will think about it. The key is to understand that the only opinions that really matter are your own opinion about yourself and the opinions of the people who you care about. Everybody else can kick rocks.
    • Quote (P. 153): “The trick is not caring what EVERYBODY thinks of you and just caring about what the RIGHT people think of you.”
      • Takeaway — As long as everybody you care about is proud of who you are and happy with what you’re doing, you’re good. As long as you’re happy with your work, your effort, your mindset, your focus, your habits, and your work ethic, you have nothing to worry about. Everybody else’s thoughts or opinions of you are completely irrelevant. You can’t control what everybody else thinks of you, but you can control whether or not the opinions of other people will bother you. Never forget that. 

Ch. 9: Sell Out

  • Create a Mailing List — A mailing list allows you to contact and stay in touch with people who have expressed interest in your work. Never add someone to your email list without their permission. Email marketing is a fairly simple process:
    • Give — Create content and give it away for free on your website
    • Collect — When somebody wants your free item, ask for an email address before they are able to download
    • Exploit — When you have a product or service to offer, send it in an email to everyone on your list
  • Newsletter — You can also create a newsletter using your website. You send it out to those interested daily, weekly, or monthly. Anybody who is interested can sign up for it on your website by providing their email address. Most people have a big CTA on their website promoting the newsletter and encouraging signups. This is a great way to collect email addresses and build a following. 
  • Quote (P. 174): “The real risk is not changing. I have to feel that I’m after something. If I make money, fine. But I’d rather be striving. It’s the striving, man, that’s what I want.” — Saxophonist John Coltrane
    • Takeaway — It should never be about the money. Making good money and everything else that comes with success is a byproduct of striving, pushing yourself, getting better every day, committing to daily habits, and being disciplined to your routine. The happiness and focus are in the process, not the rewards. 
  • Say ‘No’ — When you’re really busy and focused on progress, it can be difficult to say ‘yes’ to everything. You have to learn to say ‘no’ because we all have a finite amount of time and attention. It comes down again to good time management — say ‘no’ to anything that isn’t contributing to your progress or goals. Say ‘no’ to distractions and drama. There’s nothing “weird” about that — that’s the way it should be.
    • Quote (P. 151): “You just have to be as generous as you can (with your time), but selfish enough to get your work done.”
      • Takeaway — There’s nothing wrong with saying ‘no’ to people if they are distracting you from making progress or getting your work done. Always protect your time. Sometimes you have to be selfish when it comes to your time, and there’s nothing wrong with that. 
  • Office Hours — One way you can think about corresponding with people is to create ‘Office Hours’ where you carve out time specifically to talk to certain people. When you frame it like that in your mind, you don’t view getting together with people as an “inconvenience” or “waste of time.”

Ch. 10: Stick Around

  • Keep Learning — There’s always more to learn. Continue to read books, listen to podcasts, enhance your current skills, develop new skills, expand your knowledge, and grow. Never get content with where you’re at.
    • Quote (P. 197): “Anyone who isn’t embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn’t learning enough.” — Author Alaina de Botton
      • Takeaway — Continue to learn! Dedicate yourself to lifelong learning. Be curious. Reading and learning should be part of your daily routine. That’s how you grow. 
  • Take Breaks — If you’re consistently pushing yourself to get better every day and staying disciplined to your daily routine, it’s important to take a break once in awhile to avoid burnout. Take a day off here and there. Take a week off once a year. You’ll come back from these short breaks refreshed, refueled, and refocused.